Four Tips to Improve your Veterinary Clinic’s Digital Marketing

It’s time to bring your animal hospital into the digital age. So frequently, we see vet clinics struggle to understand the value of adopting new technology; they understand the importance of customer service and traditional marketing – creating a terrific in-person experience– but developing a solid digital experience lands on the back-burner.

All aspects of your clinic’s online experience should be thoughtful and strategic – from web design to social media to communication channels. Developing an online experience that’s convenient, intuitive and seamless for pet owners is critical.

Here are three key ways you can boost your digital vet marketing.

Create a Mobile-friendly Website

If your site isn’t optimized for mobile, consider hiring a web team (like our friends at Digital Empathy) who can build a beautiful mobile website and experience that’s convenient, intuitive and helpful for pet owners. Many sites generate more pageviews from mobile devices than from desktop computers, so it’s important to design with mobile in mind.

One of the recommendations Digital Empathy often gives clients is to include a Click-to-Text button on their vet websites. A clickable button that’s directly connected to your clinic’s landline phone number makes it easy for clients to get in touch directly from their cell phone.

Strategically placing the button in the footer, header or contact page can help increase conversions. You can also customize the color and size of the button to maintain brand integrity. This further enforces a seamless and cohesive brand experience for clients. Check out our free custom Click-to-Text button generator here. If you make it easy for them to contact you on the platform they prefer, more and more leads will come through your site.

Optimize Your Social Media to Generate Leads

Your clinic most likely invests some time and resources into creating content for social media channels, but it might be missing out on one of the greatest opportunities social media offers: lead generation.

A lead or client might scroll through your Twitter feed or like your Instagram post, but not progress any further down in the sales funnel. Including a crystal-clear CTA like a Click-to-Text button on your Instagram makes it easy and quick for them to get in touch.

Use your social media to generate conversations and personal relationships. Tell stories about pets that came into your animal hospital. Adding compassionate storytelling to your social media efforts will help pet owners trust you and want to bring their pet to you. Encouraging pet owners to share their experiences and stories will also boost your reputation as well. Most people trust reviews and recommendations from peers more than anywhere else, so sharing user-generated content and building social clout is critical.

Develop a Search-Friendly Experience

Web development teams specialized in veterinary websites can help search-optimize your website as it’s being built. They know what registers best with search engines and will develop your site accordingly. Write copy for your website that’s compelling but also maps to a specific SEO strategy. Craft meta descriptions, titles and page slugs that drive visitors to your site directly from search results.

Adding a Click-to-Text into Google My Business and Google AdWords will help your business rank higher on search engines as well. In fact, AdWords click to text buttons average 50% higher click-through-rate than other CTAs on Google search results pages.

Create Helpful Content

We can discuss the technical aspects of digital marketing that will help generate leads and improve SEO all day, but almost nothing does a better job of this than simply creating relevant and helpful content for your visitors. Pet owners are visiting your website to either gather information about your practice or they’re looking for educational information. If your website is just functioning as a clinic brochure, you’re not using your site as effectively as possible.

“The most successful veterinary practices are very sensitive to how relationships work, and actively remove the barriers between their practice and their clients. Zipwhip’s innovative technology allows veterinary hospitals to do exactly that, and when combined with our novel approach to web design and marketing, the strategy becomes a true force to be reckoned with.“
-Robert Sanchez, CEO of Digital Empathy

You want to constantly be serving your visitors content they want and crave. Start publishing blog posts on a consistent basis with helpful tips and advice for pet owners. If each piece is strategic and speaks effectively to the target audience, you’ll see a boost in search results, leads and engagement. Thinking about your website as a resource center for pet owners to gain valuable information will result in a much better web experience for them and better results for you.

Overall, it’s important to be strategic and thoughtful when building the digital experience for your clinic. Putting the clients first and implementing convenient communication tools can help drive revenue, engagement and loyalty.